Ore smelting and reduction process



May 12, 1936. M. FRANKL 2,040,650

ORE SMELTING AND REDUCTION PROCESS Original Filed Oct. 14, 1931 INVENTQR MAM/45 fiwv/rz ATTORNEYS augmentedgas circulation.

Patented May ,12, I936 Mathias Friinkl, Augsburg,

Germany, assignor to American Oxythermic' Corporation, New York. N. Y., a corporation of Original application October 14, 1931, Serial No. 568,710. Divided and this application July 19,

. 1935,Serial ..4, 1931 The invention relates to a smelting process for the treatment of ores, metals and minerals, as Well as to the reduction of ores and to the preparation of compoundso'f me allic elements. It particularly relates to a process for the manufacture of carbides, and includes correlated improvements and discoveries whereby and wherewith such process may be enhanced.

An object of the invention is to provide a process for smelting and preparation of com- Pounds of metallic elements wherein the normal gas flow is supplemented or intensified by an A further object of the invention is to provide a process in which the yield is increased through augmented gas circulation and combustion of carbon with highly concentrated oxygen.

'A still further object of the invention is to provide a process in which the gas flow is increased by a regenerative cyclic process without a lessening of the quantity of usefulheat in the region requiring high temperature. p

Otherobjects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each which will be exemplified in the process hereinafter disclosed, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims. I

For a fuller understanding of the nature and objects of the invention reference should be had to the following detailed description taken 'in connection with the accompanying drawing, in which there is depicted an the production of compounds of metallic elements, as carbides and ferro-alloys, as ferrosilicon, in which the operation is effected wholly within the regenerators.

\ The practice of the invention, accordingly, involves first establishing the conditions for carrying out the smelting operation, and more particularly by smelting the charge of material with utilization of solid fuel containingregenerators. The material is charged directly into the regenerators along with the solid fuel content whereby use of a separate furnace charged with material is obviated and the charge then smelted bymeans of heat generated by combustion of the contained fuel in one regenerator, the gas so produced being then conducted through a second regenerator in which charged material is smelted and contained fuel preheated, and alternately and periodically reversing the now of gases through theregenerators. More especially the process may of the others thereof.

apparatus suitable for Delaware No. 32,354. In Germany February 2 Claims. (Cl. 75-92) p v be carried out by finely sub-dividing the material to be treated, and introducing such material-into the high temperature zone of one of the regenerators by blowing. ,The smelting is thereby efiected by heat generated as above described.

In the production of ferro-silicon, for instance, the Whole operation is effected. within the regeneratorsA' and A", as shown in thedrawing. In this case an amount of ore or scrap iron which, compared with the, amount of fuel is in every case very small, together with the appropriate quantity of silicic acid in the shape of sand orgravel, may be charged through the regenerators or blown in in a crushed statethrough the nozzles d, together with oxygen. Crushed or ground turnings or drillings are most -suitable for this p pose.

If in place of ore or iron, limestone or burnt lime is charged into the regenerators from'the top or blown in in powder form at the bottom,

then at the high temperature prevailing carbon and lime will combine to form carbide of calcium. If neither iron nor lime is supplied, but silicic acid in the shape of sand, then carbide of silicon is produced (grinding material). In the same manner charged alumina may be reduced to aluminum carbide. i

Oxygen, together with crushed coal and crushed lime, or sand or crushed iron scrap is blown in through the nozzles d if such material is not charged into the regenerators from the top. The second phase of the invention supplements the previously described process by a regenerative cyclic process for increasing gas flow in the smelting space, without lessening the quantity of useful heat in the region of high temperature.

Through the nozzles d oxygen containing less nitrogen than the air is introduced. -A blower e serves to cause gas to circulate fromone regenerator to the other and across the smelting space in such manner that alternately gas is withdrawn from one regenerator and blown through the other into the smelting and reducing zone and at the same time removed therefrom by the first regenerator. After a few-minutes blowing time the direction of the gas stream is reversed by means of the hinged valves k and It" and the gas withdrawn from the regenerator which previously functioned to heat the gas being introduced into the smelting space. 1

While streaming from the bottom to the top, the gas gives up its heat to the fuel content of the one regenerator; on the way down it takes it up again. The blower e thus withdraws only cooled gas, as the temperature of the coal con- 

